Glass Slippers Are Only for Girls
by gsketchyl
Summary: Arthur Kirkland is a dreamer living in a world of darkness. While searching for hope, an invitation to a royal ball falls into his hands. There's only one problem.
1. Prologue

Arthur Kirkland is the son of two very rich people.

His younger years were never filled with trouble. He had a normal life, a happy life, playing with his favorite toys and being tucked in by his mother at the end of each day, after being read a story.

The kind of stories his mother had told him were the kind his father despised.

Fairy tales.

Arthur adored fairy tales so, he loved every single one his mother told him. He grew up with "silly little ideas" in his head. He thought everything was possible with the help of a good heart and a wave of a magic wand.

When he reached his twelfth birthday, his mother fell ill and died.

Then his father remarried a witch of a woman, and often left Arthur home to his three older stepbrothers and his demon stepmother.

And how hard poor Arthur had to work! He had to scrub the floors, wash the dishes, sort out the peas and lentils, and other chores. He had to clean the whole mansion all by himself, and often fell asleep by the fireplace while poking at the fire.

He didn't have much of a room, anyways, now that his stepbrother took his. His "room" was simply a dark closet that had a bundle of blankets on the floor.

But Arthur never lost hope. Hope was in all of the fairy tales that his mother had told him.

And how he loved those fairy tales.

Luckily for him, he was now eighteen, and that was the age that most young ladies and young gentlemen went to find the person that they loved most in the world, or, if you're not exactly what most would call bright, eighteen was the age that people would wed in his country.

There was also a perfect place to find that special someone.

Prince Alfred's 18th Birthday Ball.


	2. Chapter 1

"Arthur Kirkland, where in God's name is my breakfast!"

"Almost finished, Allister!" Arthur shouted back, flipping the last pancake. _Terribly sorry there's not enough of me to rub your feet, your Highness_, Arthur thought bitterly.

"Hurry up!"

"Coming!" Arthur yelled, running to the dining table. He set down plates of pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs (both sunny-side up and scrambled), and glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice.

"About damn time!"Allister yelled, even though Arthur was standing right next to him.

The poor boy's ears.

_Your welcome_, Arthur glared at his ungrateful stepbrother. His other stepbrother, James, took a few slices of bacon and a scrambled egg without a word.

Although, Dylan, his third stepbrother, smiled up at Arthur and said, "Thank you, Artie."

Dylan looked at James.

He mumbled a small, "Thanks."

Dylan's gaze moved onto Allister. Allister looked up from his sausages and bacon.

_What?_

Then came a sharp kick to Allister's left shin.

"Thanks, Arthur," Allister said forcefully through gritted teeth.

"Your welcome," Arthur said, walking out of the room. He wasn't very hungry, he already ate while cooking breakfast. Not that Allister needed to know.

He began to start with the day's chores. Clean the bathroom, dust the furniture... Arthur scanned the list and sighed. He was used to the chores, it was just that Allister made it harder for Arthur.

When cleaning the bathroom, he found a certain somebody's... _residue_ in the bathtub. Even worse, there was a trail of it from the bathtub to the door.

When he moved onto the furniture...

Well, guess who was kind enough to dump flour all over the couch.

_I knew I should have slipped rat poison in his orange juice_, Arthur thought angrily.

Laundry was a bit better. Allister didn't want to risk staining his clothes, so he usually didn't do anything weird to them. But he often slipped a dead rat inside the pockets.

Yes, Arthur's job is not for the faint of heart.

In the middle of washing the dishes, a loud, terrifying, yet shrill voice resounded throughout the house.

"ARTHUR KIRKLAND, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!"

Arthur gave a small jump at his stepmother's voice, dropping the dish he was washing. It shattered into a million pieces.

"GET UP HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Coming, stepmother!" he yelled as loud as he could. He ran up the stairs and into his parents' room.

On the bed was his stepmother's favorite dress.

The only problem with it was that it was soaked with black ink.

"Well!" his stepmother yelled loud enough for the whole house to hear.

"I-I," Arthur began, "I have no idea what you are talking about, stepmother."

"Don't play stupid!" his stepmother screamed at him. "Allister came running to me and told me, 'Mother, Mother, you've ought to see this! Arthur is ruining your best dress!'"

_Of course_, Arthur thought bitterly. _It must have been Allister!_

And for what? Making him say thank you?

"But I didn't do it!" Arthur protested, earning him a rough and hard slap on the cheek.

"Don't you lie to me! All you're worth for is doing chores you don't even do properly! You're completely and utterly useless! You're a curse and a disgrace to this family! You probably got it all from that witch of a mother-"

"Don't you talk about my mother that way!" Arthur screamed at her, earning him another slap, harder this time. He choked back a sob as he fell to the carpet from the pain.

"I'll be telling your father about this," she spat. "Now get out of my room!"

Arthur slowly got up and choked back sobs all the way back to the kitchen. The dish he had shattered was still there. He picked up each piece, one by one, cutting his fingers on every other shard.

He wiped his tears away with his sleeve, while his mother's last words to him echoed in his mind.

"Never loose hope."

And luckily for Arthur, hope was right around the corner.

**Hi everyone! :D Thanks for taking time to read this story of mine. And so that you know who's who so far:**

**Arthur-England**

**Allister-Scotland**

**James-Ireland**

**Dylan-Wales**

**Will post third chapter soon!**


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